Head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh and WB Vice President for Infrastructure Makhtar Diop (L)

At a reception in Hanoi on February 21 for WB Vice President for Infrastructure Makhtar Diop, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc thanked the WB for its support for Vietnam’s socio-economic development over recent years, particularly in poverty reduction, infrastructure and energy development, mining, financial infrastructure, and digitalization.

Vietnam pledges to strictly fulfilling its agreements with the WB, the government leader said, adding that the country holds great investment demand for development and wants the WB to support in technical assistance and non-refundable aid during its development process.

Makhtar Diop, in turn, assured his organization’s willingness to cooperate and support Vietnam in infrastructure development, and desires to share Vietnam’s experience with other countries in this field,

He also congratulated Vietnam on its impressive achievements in economic growth and social welfare, saying that many countries could learn from Vietnam’s experience in successfully transferring from a low-income to middle-income nation, while ensuring macroeconomic and social stability.

The WB official said he hopes that Vietnam would continue playing an important role in developing the region and sub-region while expressing his appreciation for the country’s power energy development.

The WB stays ready to help Vietnam build the north-south expressway and waterway, as well as develop energy and a power network, especially those connecting solar power systems to the national grid, he added.

Receiving the WB official the same day, Head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh suggested the WB continue providing Vietnam with capital and technical support and have a mechanism for the country’s ‘graduation’ from international development assistance (IDA) sources to maintain its sustainable achievements in socio-economic development and poverty reduction.

He hailed Diop’s active and important contributions to supporting Vietnam to pool investment sources in the fields of energy, transport, digital development, infrastructure, and public-private-partnership (PPP).

He said that the Vietnamese Party and Government have persisted with the goal of ensuring macroeconomic stability, focusing on growth quality, boosting economic restructuring, and determining the construction of synchronous infrastructure as one of the breakthrough strategies.

He expressed his hope that the WB would assist Vietnam in building a comprehensive legal framework on public-private partnership (PPP) to incentivize the private sector to run effective investments, especially in infrastructure projects in Vietnam.

Diop updated his host on the priorities for the program regarding infrastructure the bank is carrying out in Vietnam while assuring his organization’s continued support for the country in the future.